


The Grail Wars: The World Wars

by MissjillyV1991



Category: Saber/Lancer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-12
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-08-14 14:27:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8017528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissjillyV1991/pseuds/MissjillyV1991
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Follow Rin, Shirou, Waver, and the Maeyer heirs along with their servants as they compete in the Grail Wars! Loosely based off of Fate/Apocrypha, Black Team's theft of the Greater Grail triggers a Grail War where eighty servants are to be summoned to compete in teams for the Grail. Rin/Archer, Shirou/Rin, Saber/Zero!Lancer, Waver/OC, Lancer/OC<br/>Rating now mature as there's a PRETTY explicit lemon!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Summoning of Heroes: Part I- The Maeyers

The Summoning of Heroes: Part I- The Maeyers

_The mighty CuChualainn could not bear the humiliation of dying on the ground like an animal, so he tied himself to a stone. He died laughing as animals ate at him; and so he fell, a king among warriors._

Enya had heard many different accounts of the great hero's death, but this was the tale that her father had always told her as a child. As she climbed the rolling hills of her family's homeland, Ireland, she vaguely wondered how her brother, Aiden, was faring in his task. The Grail War would be starting soon, and this was to be the first time that the Maeyer family was to participate. Their family had been druids for 2000 years (that they knew of at least), yet they had refused to join the Mage's Association until Enya's great-grandfather, Fargus Maeyer, the last Maeyer Irish druid, joined almost one hundred years ago. Despite the fact that their family had always been a well regarded mage family, the Mage's Association from the Clock Tower refused to do them the courtesy of even acknowledging them until great-grandfather.

Enya huffed as she reached the top of a particularly steep hill. Growing up outside of Ireland-though she and her family still visit the "old family homestead" on holidays- it was easy to forget the beauty of the Old Country. However, Enya and her twin were not here on holiday, they were here on a mission; retrieve their artifacts for the great summoning of heroes. Her and her brother were to both compete in this upcoming Holy Grail War.

 _That is, assuming that the Grail actually chooses both of us,_ she thought as she looked at the command seals that had formed on her right hand, which still burned by the way. Trying to ignore the subtle but annoying throb of pain the newly formed command seals, which she had been very excited to receive this morning after two days into her journey as this marked her as a chosen mage for this Grail War, she took out her map. If the rumors were true and she had divined everything correctly, she should be able to locate the artifact she was looking for. Unfortunatley though, Enya was not a good map reader and she had a terrible sense of direction, despite her status as a druid mage.

 _Good God, I'm a shame to my family name!_ Finally frustrated with herself after being unable to find the rock she was looking for, Enya took out her stones; divination was one of her strong suits. If she couldn't use the map that the old druid, Brenden, had given her that supposedly led to the burial site of the legendary hero she was looking for, then she could divine its location.

Finding a good place where the natural mana flowed well, Enya sat down and took a deep breath. Meditating momentarily to clear her mind, she then shook the bag contains the divination stones. Closing her eyes and opening her mind, she dumped the bags contents on the earth she was sitting on. Enya knew that under normal circumstances, divining on the ground was a bad idea and that it often yielded poor results, if it yielded any results at all. Usually, doing this ruined the stones, but Enya had a good feeling about divining in this manner in this case; her intuition from her first divination was telling her that she was quite close to the burial site, the energy flow in the area surrounding her was excellent, she was near the place the hero's head and spear arm had been taken, Tara (which itself is a good energy source), and the artifact she was looking for would be somewhere among the earth.

Moving the stones around a bit to divine the location of the artifact, the rush of the vision came to Enya in her mind's eye. A sudden wave of tiredness came over Enya as soon as the vision ended. Divination was extremely useful for finding items such as artifacts, but most mages preferred to use the technique as a last resort because it tended to drain a lot of mana, and honestly, the visions are more like an unpleasant head rush; which usually made Enya slightly nauseous.

After gathering the stones and putting them back in their bag, Enya decided to lay down and rest a bit on the soft, lush grass beneath her before following her vision. Thinking to herself, _CuChulainn isn't going anywhere_. She even doubted that there was anyone else in the area as she could not feel out any other mages. Though she knew that the mage Bazett wanted to try competing as well, Enya had a feeling that the older woman would not be beating her to this particular possible servant, given the fact that Enya made sure that Waver (with a little bit of bribery of course!) had given the woman too much work to do in London for her to be able to journey to Ireland before or during Enya's journey.

Since Enya was a little girl on her father's lap, listening to the stories of Ireland's ancient heroes and of the Holy Grail Wars, Enya knew that the Ulster Cycle hero, CuChulainn, was the hero whom she wanted to be her servant should she ever compete. And Enya would be damned to the deepest bowels of Hell if some thirteenth generation mage like Bazett was to beat her to it!

* * *

 

Aiden felt slightly guilty for lying to his older twin: he already had his artifact, but he had come with Enya to the Old Country to do his summoning. However, Enya was under the belief that after they parted ways at the international airport in Dublin, Aiden was traveling to find _his_ artifact-his catalyst-for the summoning of his own hero for this Grail War. Though his travel to the Bay of Shells was difficult, it wasn't nearly as difficult as stealing the late Kayneth El-Meloi's artifact used in the previous Holy Grail War had been; but hiding the artifact from Enya while on the plane and through the airport and customs was the hardest part. The bangle Grainne had worn during her and Diarmuid's flight from the wrath of Fionn was old and frail, which made hiding it even more difficult. Indeed, Aiden nearly shat his pants when the Irish customs officer roughly searched his carry-on. He was afraid that the man would accidentally break the artifact that he wanted to use as the catalyst to summon the famous Knight of the Fianna.

After he'd watched the sun go down, it was time for him to get to work. Aiden had chosen the Bay of Shells to summon his servant for several reasons: it was the area of Ireland most closely associated with Diarmuid and Grainne's story when the woman cast a Geis on Fionn's best Knight, causing Diarmuid to flee with Grainne from Fionn himself; this story is one of the most recognizable stories associated with the hero; and the location was the easiest location to get to that was associated with the knight that also had the most favorable energy conditions. Aiden figured that all of these factors would provide the best conditions for the summoning of the heroic spirit he was hoping to receive in order to maximize the servant's potential.

Finding an appropriate spot in the bay, Aiden set to work in digging the ground to make the seal. Completing that part, Aiden felt a swell of pride while admiring his work, _Father and Mother would be proud!_ This war would determine who would be the heir to their parents' power: it was the fairest way that the twins and their parents could think of in order to determine who was most fit to carry on the Maeyer name and family knowledge of magecraft.

Moving on to the next step, Aiden's heart nearly stopped and he stared at the empty crest in horror. He'd forgotten the most crucial step in order to summon a servant of the grail war! He forgot that he needed to _fill_ the damn seal in order to make it work. Sighing irritably at his forgetfulness in his excitement at receiving his command seals only hours ago, thus marking him as a competitor in this Grail War, he started back towards the village. _Filling the seal with metals created through alchemy would be the best, but I don't have time! The chicken blood from the chickens in the village will have to do..._

As Aiden walked back to the village, his thoughts drifted to his sister, Enya. There was no doubt in his mind that Enya would try to summon a lancer as well, most likely CuChulainn; Enya had always had a fascination with the Irish hero since she was a child, and especially given the fact that Bazett suddenly and out of nowhere was given a mandatory assignment from the Clock Tower far away from Ireland (of which Aiden had no doubt that Enya was the cause of), he was more than certain that she would specifically be trying to summon Cuchulainn in his strongest form: a lancer class servant. Therefore, as of now, it was only a matter of time before a lancer class servant was summoned. The question was: would it be Aiden or Enya?

At this though, Aiden quickened his pace to a sprint towards the village. His sister was known for her competence and her unmatched divination skills; she has likely already found her catalyst, and thus, she would likely be summoning her hero very soon as well. Whether or not she summoned CuChulainn as a lancer, she would be summoning him in one form or another; however, Aiden's catalyst could likely either summon Diarmuid or Grainne, given the fact that the artifact once belonged to them both, and Aiden _did not_ want to get stuck with Grainne, who would likely come as a Caster class servant if he was unable to summon Diarmuid, whom, as far as Aiden knew, could only be summoned as a Lancer class servant.

* * *

 

I _'ll be damned if I don't get to compete in the Grail War with those two fuckers..._ Justin thought bitterly to himself as he poured cow's blood in the seal he'd dug into the earth near the slaughter house he worked in. He was a second generation mage; his mother, Tara Howard, having dabbled in mage craft during the brief time she had spent with his biological father, Fredrick Maeyer whom had come from a long line of druid mages. _But not long enough in comparison to his bitch-ass, battle axe of a wife, Rowena Maeyer._ Justin Tennison laughed at his father, the man who wanted nothing to do with him, his own flesh and blood, after accidentally impregnating Justin's mother. It was ironic, truly: Fredrick saw Tara, who had just begun to practice magecraft, and thus, the first generation mage, as an unworthy partner in marriage due to her "weak bloodline"; yet, Rowena Maeyer, the woman Fredrick married only a year after Justin's birth, found Fredrick's bloodline to be so much weaker than her own that he took her family name as his own, as did both of their children who were conceived in wedlock.

"Fill, Fill, Fill, Fill, Fill! Repeat in five times," Justin read from the book on magecraft, which his mother had stolen in order to improve her magecraft in the hopes to win Fredrick back after he rejected her and Justin. When he had heard about the Holy Grail War and of its battle royal to win the wish granting miraculous artifact, he knew that his younger half brother and sister would likely be competing, and he did not intend to pass up this golden opportunity that he is his father's rightful heir, not those pompous little shit heads birthed by their bitch mother! Justin had seen their work at the Clock Tower two years ago during his brief stint there. It was his siblings' first year, but it was his third. Oh how pompous and arrogant they had been! Just because of the families they'd come from! Justin quickly found that the Clock Tower was not the place for him to nurture his wondrous gifts as a mage; it was a place that rewarded long bloodlines and famous names. In Justin's opinion and experience, it was not a place that nurtured natural, God-given talent, nor the superior dark arts and blood magic that he and his mother had practiced; something of which his father scorned as a Druid practitioner. _Oh how superior the druids falsely believe themselves to be!_ Justin knew that with his raw, but still being refined talent, along with his gift of being born with more mana than the average mage-a trait that he learned in the Clock Tower's archives on mage families ran strongly in his father's bloodline-he had just as good a chance at winning the Holy Grail as his half brother and sister.

 _Enough!_ Justin told himself; he needed to clear his mind at the moment in order to summon the most powerful hero he could. He would have his revenge on his father later, but he needed this servant and the grail to do so. Flipping the book's pages, he began to chant the incantations to invoke the heroic spirit, whoever it would be; Justin was not exactly sure how to summon specific spirits, but he knew that he could draw a strong one since the Grail will match a Master with a compatible heroic spirit, and well, he had been chosen to be a master quite early given the fact that he had received command seals on his hand a year before the Grail War was due to start. He was confident that he could draw a strong servant without a catalyst.

During the last sentence of the incantation, the seal on the ground began to glow brightly, a bright, almost neon purple to be exact. In fact, the light had become so bright that after he'd read the last sentence of the incantation, he had to shield his eyes, an act he loathed to do; he wanted to see what it looked like when a heroic spirit was summoned! After the light faded and Justin was able to adjust his eyes back to the darkness, he was struck speechless.

"I ask you," said a silver haired woman in a voice so calm and cold it chilled Justin to the bone. She asked him her question, but Justin was unable to answer because just then, a group of men-security for the slaughter house no doubt- approached them. Pointing their bright flashlights in Justin's face, he heard a voice:

"Who's there?! Identify yourself!"

The woman servant, slowly turning her head to look at the men behind her, eerily answered, "Didn't your mothers ever teach you any manners? 'Tis rude to interrupt an ongoing conversation!"

One of the men, pulling out a pair of handcuffs, while the others unholstered their guns, said, "I don't know who or what you are lady, but you have a lot of questions to answer down at the police station! This is private property and you are trespassing!"

Slowly turning around to face the men, she gave a wicked smile, "You all sound like old, tiresome men, but you do not look the part." Waving an elegant, blue colored clawed hand with purple veins protruding from the top of the claw, whose blue color faded into her pale skin tone just below her elbow as well as her purple veins, the woman continued, "I can help you there."

At the wave of her hand, a silver, magical force swept through the men, startling them. At first, it seemed as if nothing happened, then suddenly, the men began to age very quickly. Their screams turning into the weaker moans of very old men, they aged rapidly until there was nothing left of them but bones. Having been startled to the ground, Justin could only watch the events unfolding before him and stare in terrified amazement.

After finishing her work with the guards, the woman turned her attention back to Justin. Her clawed, elongated, yet elegant feet matched her hands in color and also had the same protruding veins; all of which ended just below her knees in the same fashion the color of her hands and their veins did. Her eyes were the color of the night's sky, and they were so dark they were nearly black. They also seemed to be lined on the waterlines in a smokey black with, and with what appeared to be, black eyeshadow lining the bottoms and the tops of her eyes and blended to extend to the sides of her hairline. A beautiful contrast to her silver-almost white hair, which was so long, it came down to her bottom. Looking at her exquisite hair, he noticed her manner of dress as well; it seemed that she pulled her long, thick hair in front to cover her breasts, and it appeared that she only wore a long, deep crimson-brown skirt with a high slit in the middle of the front starting at the middle of her thighs, which were covered in intricate purple tattoos. In fact, her whole body was covered in these tattoos, even her chest and face, which she had thin tattoos coming to a point just below her cheekbones and ending just before the bones themselves ended, acting almost as a strange bronzer meant to highlight them, as well as two ragged tattoos staring at her hairline to end at a point just above her black, bold arched eyebrows.

Though most would consider the servant to be deformed due to her clawed hands and feet, Justin thought her exquisitely elegant and beautiful, but hauntingly so; almost like an elegantly beautiful otherworldly creature. As she approached him, he realized that she must be almost six feet tall!

"I ask you again," she said in a deep, confident feminine voice with almost no tone. "Who is it that summons me? A servant of the Caster class."

Embarrassed that his ass had fallen to the ground in fear and awe of his servant's terrible power, Justin quickly recovered himself. "It is I, Justin Tennison! You're master in this Holy Grail War!" He said this, bringing his hand up and showing her his purple colored command seals.

"Very well then _master_ ," she smirked. "Our pact is sealed."

Staring at her momentarily, Justin was not completely sure as to what he should do, then he remembered something important; he needed to know her name.

"My name you ask?" She said; he'd forgotten that as master and servant with a completed pact, they could hear one another's thoughts. Looking up at the moon she answered pensively, "During this time period, I have yet to have a widely recognizable name," her hard, calm gaze coming back to him she continued, "I have had many names throughout my lifetime. Though I suppose my most famous was Chronas."

* * *

 

Placing CuChulainn's earrings, which she had dug up only hours ago, onto a makeshift pedestal-the rock itself that served as the Irish hero's crude burial marker-and damn it had been a bitch to move, even with magic! Enya had everything in place; now she just needed to do the incantation to invoke his spirit! Despite her excitement though, she still felt terribly guilty for having to kill those hounds; she liked dogs, they were good and loyal beasts deserving of the highest honor. They weren't called "man's best friend" for nothing! She gave them all a peaceful, painless death before bleeding them, and she had tried to choose old and decrepit hounds from the vets whom were due to be put down anyways; but doing so still made her cry for them a bit. In fact, she was still tearing up at the thought as she wiped a tear away.

If it had been any other hero, she would have used the blood of livestock to fill the seal used to summon the heroes of the Grail, but this was THE CuChulainn! This particular hero was well known to be associated with dogs, and Enya was hell bent on winning this Grail War; she needed to maximize his stats as a heroic spirit of the Grail as much as possible, and using the blood of hounds would help her in this task, as well as summoning him in Ireland near his burial site, along with using the rock of his burial site as a pedestal for his catalyst. Hell! Enya had even considered wearing one of the hero's earrings for the summoning because she thought it may strengthen their bond and thus strengthen their connection and his power as her servant, but she decided against it after much consideration.

Pouring the blood and filling the seal, she began the incantation and summoning, but with a modifier at the end meant to increase her odds of summoning him as a lancer class servant, his most powerful class; "Come forth! Hero of the Mythical Spear Gae Bolg!" The bright bluish light was blinding, but Enya refused to shut her eyes or shield her face. She had been waiting nearly all her life to meet the great Cuchulzinn! Unfortunately though, the light blinded her greatly and when it faded, all she could see was the black of the night.

Griping Gae Bolg in his spear hand, CuChulainn blinked and tried to orient himself. Though he knew why he was there due to the knowledge that the Grail automatically instills in him upon his summoning, he didn't know much else as to where he was and who he was with. _Emer?_ He swore that he could feel her presence. His vision coming into focus and red, beastial eyes adjusting to the darkness, he could see better in the darkness than any human. Looking at the figure before him, his heart lept in joy! _Emer!_ The young woman before him looked and felt like Emer, but there was something off about her...

Letting his eyes completely focus before assessing the disoriented woman before him, to his sadness, he realized that she was not Emer...

Recovering, he felt bad for the poor disoriented lass as she was rapidly blinking her eyes, attempting to focus, and feeling the air in front of her. Sighing, he was disappointed that she was not Emer, but at least she was beautiful and reminded him of his Emer. Trying to help her and fearing that she may trip and fall due to her blindness and disorientation, he grabbed her arm to steady her.

Startled by the sudden grip on her arm and her inability to see to whom the hand gripping her belonged to, Enya asked, "Who's there?!" It came out as an embarrassing squeak.

A man's laugh rumbled before he answered with great confidence, "It is I! CuChulainn summoned for this Holy Grail War!"

Enya's eyes finally focusing, she was awestruck when she saw him! He was even more magnificent than she had imagined! Brushing his hand off her arm, she recomposed herself as a mage and showed him her blue command seals. "Welcome to the twenty-first century CuChulainn. I am your master for this war! I am the Druid mage Enya of House Maeyer," she stated proudly.

"Very well then Enya the Druid. I'm guessing then that it was you who summoned me to be the Lancer of Blue for this war?"

Wait, did he just say "Lancer of Blue"? Her mouth dropped in shock; was he implying that there were other Lancers?!

Enya heard him laugh, "I must say lass! So far, I am glad to be in your service! Your facial expressions are quite comical!"

Recovering from shock, Enya asked worriedly, "Lancer of Blue?! Are you saying that there are other Lancers competing in this war as well?! If so, that is most unprecedented!"

The man in the blue suit covered in what Enya assumed were silver ruin markings, raised his head up and put his hand on his forehead, and teasingly asked her, "You didn't know? There will be eight lancers to be exact; one Lancer for each team and seventy nine other servants." He laughed again when Enya suddenly felt lightheaded and began to sweat before hitting the ground flat.

Lancer could only stare in disbelief as the lass before him fainted. "Geez," he sighed as he checked to make sure his master was alright. He stepped back when she startled awake. Her eyes wide as saucers, she asked him, "Seven-seventy nine other servants?! Oh my God!" She started to panic and hyperventilate; that meant seventy nine servants and seventy nine other mages were to be competing in this war!

 _Good grief. It seems I've overestimated this one. Too bad; I felt great power and potential coming from this lass when our pact was completed and sealed._ Sounds of people approaching broke him from his thoughts and he quickly went to Enya's side in case he needed to protect her.

A rather large group of men from the nearby small, quaint village, probably seeing the bright light from Enya summoning her lancer, approached them. Enya nearly burst out laughing when she saw that they were carrying torches and pitchforks.

"What the bloody hell?!" One man exclaimed.

"What the fuck is going on here!" Another said with a thick Irish accent.

"They be one of those tourist freaks no doubt looking for trouble!" A rather large man said threateningly and readying a rather frightening looking machete upon seeing lancer ready his spear to attack.

"Stand down Lancer!" Enya said in her most authoritative voice.

"Master, there's over a dozen of them and I believe they mean to do us harm."

She confidently told him, "Not to worry." Waving her hand over the men, she chanted, " _Eirigh as stad_!" Lancer felt and saw the magical force of her spell wash over the mob, who all immediately froze in place. Brushing the dirt off her jeans from her fall just moments ago, she turned to Lancer, who looked as if he had just been stunned as well. "Come Lancer. We have a long walk ahead of us tonight," she said this smiling while throwing her long dark hair over her shoulder.

Awestruck by his master's power and how easily she used a spell to stop them while expending such little mana, Lancer was beginning to think he was going to like Enya as his master. A strong, beautiful, intelligent woman; if he had to be the servant of a woman master, those were the attributes he'd want her to have, and Enya fit the part perfectly. Smiling to himself, he carried his spear over his shoulder and caught up to Enya, who looked over to him and smiled at him in acknowledgement.

* * *

 

Author's Note: Sorry if I butchered Irish mythology, but it's quite unclear and there's several versions of these stories. BTW: Justin is not a bad guy; he's a complicated character who is neither good nor bad. Also, I thought a mob scene would be a little humorous, and don't worry, Enya didn't harm them (sorry if my gaelic is wrong, I don't speak it); she just stunned them briefly enough for her and Lancer to get away safely and she's assuming that since they are country folk from a very small village, people will just brush this instance off as superstition.

No disrespect to anyone; I had to take a few liberties with these stories, but type-moon does the same.

BTW: This chapter has some very subtle foreshadowing if you look hard enough ;)

R&R Please! And please no flaming! ^.^

Next up: Rin, Shirou, and Waver!


	2. The Summoning of Heroes Part II

**Author's Note: Sorry Folks, I forgot the disclaimer; I own nothing. Not fate stay night nor ufotable nor Type-moon, or any of it's characters or anything else related to the three!**

* * *

 

Chapter 2: The Summoning of Heroes Part II- Fuyuki City

"Fuck! Aiden! Cover his mole for God's sake!" Enya snapped at her brother after the fifth woman in the past hour approached Diarmuid. At first, it had been funny to watch the lancer servant of Yellow, as well as Aiden, get flustered with all of the women gawking at Diarmuid and shyly approaching him, even her own Lancer heartily laughed; but now, it was starting to get ridiculous. They were walking around Dublin trying to gather supplies for the upcoming war, but the amount of women following Diarmuid due to his charm curse was becoming very distracting. They should have been done hours ago!

Getting a bandaid out of his back pack, Aiden couldn't help but to laugh as only his sister's pink, Hello Kitty bandaids were suitable to cover the servant's mole, to which Diarmuid grimaced in humiliation. "You're just still pissed that you also fell under his suggestion charm," he mocked back at his sister.

"Initially! Initially!" Indeed, despite such magic resistance, Enya herself had even fallen under the charm; but due to her magic resistance she was able to realize the situation quite quickly and remedy this issue with an anti-suggestion charm. Sure, this charm sucked up more mana than she wished, but it was worth it. She didn't want to embarrass herself further by constantly gawking at her brother's lancer, plus, she needed to focus. "You know, due to your incompetence, you're damn lucky that eight lancers are able to compete in this war, because if not, you likely would have been stuck with Grainne as a Caster servant you idiot!"

CuChulainn mentally sighed, here we go again. _Those two have been at each other's throats ever since they'd found the other with a Lancer class servant._ Next thing the lancer knew, he was being knocked over by the twins, who's argument had now become physical. Honestly, if the bickering hadn't been going on all day, the lancer would have actually have found this to be quite comical; Enya, getting fed up with Aiden, had decided to tackle him to the ground, but in her anger, she hadn't noticed that her own lancer was right behind him, thus she took him down with her target. Crawling out from the brawl between the twenty-one year old twins, CuChulainn looked over at Diarmuid, who looked equally irritated by the debacle unfolding before them. Nodding in silent understanding and agreement, the lancers grabbed their masters and pulled them apart. Cuchulainn lifted Enya over his shoulder and carried her in the direction of the apothecary with her kicking and screaming obscenities about how improper it was for a servant to man-handle his master. To which, of course, CuChulainn couldn't care less.

"You sons of bitches!" Enya screamed at her brother and her servant.

"Hey! Is that any way to speak about our mother?!"

* * *

 

Waver Velvet smiled to himself, _ten years has been far too long._

It had surprised him at first, but he was overjoyed at the prospect of seeing _him_ again. After Rider, Alexander the Great, Iskander, was defeated by Gilgamesh in the last Holy Grail War, Waver felt a wave of pain and sadness wash over him. Rider, no, Iskander, had gone from being Waver's annoying, pain-in-the-ass servant to being his friend. When Iskander died in the last war in Fuyuki City, Waver decided to keep his promise to honor his old friend and comrade. After all, Iskander had been the only person to believe in him and taught him how and what it meant to be a man. Ten years later, Waver still honors the Kin of Conquerors through small, seemingly mundane ways; but ways that are important to Waver. After Iskander's death, Waver had discovered that he actually liked video games and played them daily. That's actually how he'd become good friends with the Maeyers, especially Enya; they'd bonded over their love of playing Tekken and she'd bought a copy of the latest release before he did, so they played together. In fact, they began playing a lot of video games together, sometimes with her brother, Aiden. Despite a seven-year age gap, she had been what he supposed people would call his first crush, but she was nineteen at the time...Waver didn't have much time for women, and the ones who flirted or tried to date him were never really his type. He supposed that Enya was simply the first girl whom he'd ever really bonded with, so he figured that was probably why he had developed some more romantic-type feelings for her. Unfortunatley though, he had to quash those feelings when he became a professor at the clock tower at such a young age and she was still a student: it was inappropriate. Still though, they had remained good friends and they always found time to play video games together every Friday.

Focusing back on Iskander, Waver was thrilled when he discovered that his catalyst was safe and had been relatively untouched; however, he couldn't say the same for Diarmuid's, in fact, Waver nearly had a heart attack when he discovered Grainne's bangle to be missing. Recovering the catalyst from the deceased Lord El-Meloi was hard enough! Waver inwardly groaned, he was now Lord El-Meloi II, a title granted to him by the El-Meloi family when he picked up where Kayneth had left off in his work after the arrogant man's sudden, and unexpected death; Raines was going to pitch a fit when she finds out that he has lost Grainne's Bangle. Waver had teared up and almost cried tears of joy when he realized that he now had a good chance of seeing Iskander again, a chance he thought he would never have, but the other missing catalyst had quickly turned his joy into ash in his mouth.

I _literally saw it the other day when the Maeyers had come for tea! What the hell happened to the damn thing!_ Realization suddenly hitting him, he smacked his hand onto his forehead. AIDEN! That son of a bitch probably nicked it when his and Enya's backs were turned; they had been so enthralled in their heated argument over whether Resident Evil or Silent Hill was the better survival horror game that the little shit probably saw it as the perfect opportunity to steal the bangle for himself as a catalyst. Enya had actually come to him that day to ask him to do her a solid by stalling Bazett's departure to Ireland for CuChulainn's artifact, which led to their discussion of the upcoming war. Both twins intended to summon Irish heroes as servants to help them win the war. No doubt Aiden intended to beat his sister to a Lancer class servant before her. In Waver's unbiased opinion, the twins were on the same level as far as skill and talent, something he knew that their much less skilled older half brother resented during his brief year and a half attempting to train at the clock tower; however, Enya was definitely the more competent and reliable of the two, while Aiden was the sly little sneak of them. Aiden likely, knowing that his more competent sister would beat him to a Lancer class servant first, nicked Grainne's Bangle in the hopes of summoning Diarmuid as a lancer. Lancers tended to suck up a lot of their master's mana, hence why Kayneth was Diarmuid's master and Soliou strictly provided the servant with her superior mana supply, and both Enya and Aiden being born with an unusual amount of mana and magic circuits, thanks to their father and mother's respective bloodlines, a lancer would be the ideal servant for them both.

 _Oh well_ , he concluded, _either way I'll find out whether or not Aiden took it the next time I see him, and if he did, I'll surely be getting it back._

Upon figuring that Aiden had likely taken the bangle, Waver decided to chill about it instead of making a fuss; the twins were far away from London, they'd both likely summoned their servants at this point, and Waver knew Enya well enough that she'd make sure that her friend got his artifact back from her brother. Instead, he decided to not tell Reines and focus on summoning Iskander, which he intended to do right this time around. Waver had greatly improved his alchemy skills over the years so he had gotten to work on creating a more proper summoning circle than last time, filling the original ground he had summoned the King of Conquerors on with the alchemic metal he had created. Sure, the chicken blood from his first summoning was fine, but that's all it was: fine, as in it would make do. Using alchemic metals were far superior than blood, most of the time at least, he thought to himself. There were some servants who would probably benefit more from being summoned in circles filled with certain types of blood, which was usually related to how strongly the animal, or, Waver suppressed a shudder at remembering the rumors as to how the last Caster was summoned, kind of humans were related to the heroic spirit's tales, if there were any at all that is.

Looking up at the sky, the moon was in proper alignment: it was time. Placing Iskander's catalyst on the exact same make shift pedestal he'd used for the last summoning, he began his chant. Shielding his eyes to the light, Waver was still blinded by the red blinding light. _Wait! Red light? I don't remember the light being red or any color at all for that matter._ However, these sour thoughts quickly left Waver's mind when he heard the snorting of beasts. Iskander!

"Tell me boy," said a deep, rough voice, "are you to be my master?"

Waver felt tears of happiness prick his eyes before quickly forcing them to retreat, Iskander taught him to be a man and he didn't want to disappoint his dear friend.

"It has been too long Iskander," Waver told the large man before him as the fog from the summoning cleared.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?"

Waver's heart sank and he felt his cheeks heat in anger, "It's me! Waver, you big palooka!"

"Waver?" Iskander blinked at the man before him before recognition hit him. "Waver!" The large servant exclaimed, jumping from his chariot and pulling the other man into a bear hug. "What happened to you?! You got older!" Letting go of the mage, he examined him at arms length, "And taller! Hahaha! And here I thought you'd be puny forever! I see that you still have the physique of a woman though and now you have the hair to match it!" The Rider class servant laughed heartily.

Waver face palmed at this. The King of Conquerors hadn't changed a bit...

* * *

 

Rin Tohsaka was genuinely surprised when she'd received her command seals. She had been in bed, sound asleep when she'd felt seeing pain on her right hand. After examining the blue markings, she made a quick call to that damned priest. Waking the man, she heard him irritably tell her, "Rin, it's six o'clock in the morning...what is the meaning of this?"

Sleepy, irritable, and frightened, herself, Rin sharply replied, "Why are there command seals on my hand a year before the grail war is due to even start and why the hell are they blue you hack of a priest!"

Silence on the other end, Kirei's tired mind was trying to process this shocking revelation. "Stay there," she heard sheets rustle on the other end, "I'll be there as soon as I can."

Normally, Rin would have told the bastard that Hell would freeze over before she'd let him into her home again. He had been an unwelcome guest ever since he'd failed to protect her father in the last war, but this time, Rin was a little frightened. Plus, she was too tired and sleepy to get dressed and walk to the church herself. Throwing her robe on, she made tea for herself and Kirei while she waited for his arrival.

"Hmmm," the priest mused as he examined Rin's right hand, "Those are definitely command seals." He sipped his steaming hot tea, sputtering a bit. He knew that Rin couldn't cook to save her life, but somehow she had also managed to prove herself incapable of even making decent tea. _Must be a mage thing_ , he thought to himself. Still though, the sun hadn't even risen and he was thankful to have the caffeine to help wake him up. Even if it did taste terrible...

"I will contact the Clock Tower and the Mage's Association to gather more information on the matter. Normal, command seals are red not blue. This is highly unusual," Kirei told Rin as he drained his cup. "In the mean time, do not attempt to summon a heroic spirit Rin. Better to er on the side of caution until we know exactly what is going on."

Rin narrowed her eyes at the fake priest, she didn't like being told to do, especially if it was Kirei; but she begrudgingly had to admit that he was right. If she tried to summon without actually knowing what will happen if she does, she could easily end up in a dire situation or one that she may or may not be ready for. Walking Kirei to the door, he turned to her before leaving, "I will contact you as soon as I know what exactly is going on. I would advise you to stay out of trouble and exposing yourself. In fact, you may even want to hide your command seals for the time being. It is highly likely that you are not the only mage to have their command seals already. Other mages who may have taken the plunge into the dark by going ahead and summoning their heroic spirits might be thinking it advantageous to go ahead and start eliminating possible masters without summoned servants for the upcoming war since it won't be occurring for another year."

Closing the door behind Kirei, Rin sat on her couch in the living room and poured another cup of tea. He's right, she thought to herself as she sipped her tea, _I can_ _handle myself though. I am a Tohsaka after all._ Making up her mind, Rin finished her tea and went to go get ready for school. Looking at her calendar, she realized that tomorrow would be the summer solstice, and to her luck, her heart jumped in excitement that there would be a full moon tonight as well. The conditions were going to be perfect at two A.M. for her to summon Saber. With this in mind, she decided that she would skip school and search for her catalyst.

* * *

 

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

Shirou Emiya sleepily turned off his alarm. He silently scolded himself for staying up too late to practice magic as he sluggishly got up to use the bathroom and get ready for school. After using the toilet, eyes still half shut and his brain not quite waking up yet, he turned on the water to the shower, then went to the sink to brush his teeth, letting the water heat up before getting in the shower. Gargling some water to get the remnants of the toothpaste out of his mouth, he then spit in the sink. Noticing the bags under his tired eyes, he massaged them in the hopes that it would make them less puffy, _Jeez, I'm so tired even my hand burns_ , he thought until he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw it.

"What-What the Hell!" There was a strange blue colored marking on his right hand, sort of resembling a cross. Thinking Taiga was playing another one of her stupid pranks on him, Shriou got in the shower. Grabbing the loofa and some soap, he began to scrub the offensive marking on his hand. Seeing that it still wasn't coming off, he scrubbed harder and harder until he'd scrubbed his hand so hard the skin was red and slightly bleeding.

 _This is not happening!_ He thought frustrated. Needing to make breakfast and get to school soon, Shriou finally gave up, finished showering, and got out. After toweling himself off, he needed to cover the marking; it violated the school dress code. Getting out the first aid kit, he wrapped his right hand in gauze to cover it and got dressed. He could pass it off as an injury until he could figure out how in the Hell he was going to get the marking off.

Walking into his kitchen, Taiga was already waiting impatiently for him. "You're awfully late, sleepy head," she teased him as Shirou started making breakfast.

As he was cooking, he watched as Taiga innocently watched the news, completely oblivious to his hand and acting as if it were any other day.

"C'mon! Hurry up! I'm starving," she complained.

Slightly annoyed, he responded to her, "You know you can eat at your own house right?"

Taiga got up and looked at him with pure confusion, "but this is my house."

Shirou inwardly sighed, when he noticed Sakura was not here. "Hey, Fuji-nee, where's Sakura?"

"Her grandfather called her and Shinji in sick today, so it's just you and me today kid!" She smiled; Sakura's absence meant more food for her!

Shirou and Taiga sat down for breakfast. Unbeknownst to Shirou, Taiga was watching him slyly; she had replaced the soy sauce with Worcestershire Sauce. Trying her hardest to suppress a smile, she waited for it.

Hungrier than usual, probably from staying up so late and using up so much mana to practice, he finally took a bite of his rice, then the awful taste hit him. Sputtering and falling backwards. "It's-it's Worcestershire Sauce!" He exclaimed with disgust, "Fuji-nee!" He knew exactly who had done this.

Taiga burst out laughing, she couldn't contain it any longer, "Haha! That's what you get for calling me by my nickname!"

"You're a teacher and an adult! You should act like one!" He watched her laugh hysterically, when she noticed his bandaged hand.

"Hey! What happened to your hand?" She said with genuine concern.

Shirou felt his blood go cold, he needed to think up an excuse and quick! "I-I accidentally cut it trying to repair the AC unit last night. It'll be fine! Don't worry about it!"

Though Taiga loved to play pranks on young Shirou, she was also genuinely concerned for his well being, "Geez Shirou, you really aught to be more careful! Like, I know that you do this kinda stuff all the time, but you could still seriously should be careful and look after yourself more." Looking at the clock, Taiga concerned face washed over with worry, "Ack!" She exclaimed, "gotta run!" She quickly wolfed down the rest of her food and fled out the door.

Hearing Taiga's motorbike fade away, Shirou rubbed the back of his head, I doubt she has anything to do with this strange marking, he concluded. Looking at the mess from breakfast, he sighed irritably. _She could have at least washed her own dirty dishes._

Arriving to school late, Shirou ran into Issei in the hallway. "Hey Issei!" Shirou greeted his friend with a smile. "Ah! Shirou! I was looking for you this morning, that A/C unit is out again and I was wondering if you'd mind to take a look at it."

"Sure! No problem. After school?" Shirou asked.

"Yes that'd be perfect. What happened to your hand?" Issei asked, noticing the bandage on Shirou's right hand.

Shirou stopped, looking at his hand, he replied nonchalantly, "This? Oh, it's no big deal. I accidentally cut myself fixing my own A/C unit late last night. I was pretty tired, so I guess I was being a little clumsy." _Yeah, that's it; just pass it off as an injury from the A/C unit._

Leaning against the wall, Issei asked, "Did you hear?"

"No. About what?"

"Tohsaka's perfect attendance shattered today. She hasn't missed any class in ten years!" Issei said with shock.

"Oh, yeah. Fuji-nee said that Sakura and Shinji were too sick for school today. Maybe there's a bug or something going around," Shirou casually relayed this information to Issei.

"Don't you think that's a bit weird? I mean, for all three of them to call in sick? I mean, Sakura's nice and all, but she is a bit strange, and so are Shinji and Tohsaka. Especially Tohsaka. There's something not right about that girl. Bad vibes man."

Soaking all of this information in, today was beginning to be a strange day indeed; first, Shirou's hand, and now, Tohsaka, Sakura, and Shinji suddenly and unexpectedly called in sick. "Nah, you're over-reacting Issei. I'm sure it's all just a coincidence," Shirou assured his friend with a smile before heading to class.

* * *

 

Rin irritably unlocked the front door to her house. _Today has been a total waste_ , she thought to herself bitterly. She spent all day looking for a catalyst to summon Saber only for her efforts to prove useless. Now, it was almost midnight, meaning that she only had two hours to prepare for her summoning.

Taking her shoes off after closing the door, she saw the lane-line message recorder beeping red. Turning on the recorder, _Rin, it's Kirei, call me whenever you can. Those markings are fine and you need to performing the summoning as soon as you can. However, there's something important about this war that you need to know. Call the Clock Tower and ask to speak to me as soon as you can._

Getting the "go ahead" from Kirei, Rin decided that she would call the priest in the morning. She only had two hours to perform the summoning! By the time she finished gathering everything she needed it was almost two A.M. Quickly heading downstairs to her "workshop", she began to heave the heavy wooden table off the summoning circle.

 _Wavelength ideal_. Looking at the clock, it was exactly two A.M. _My mana is at it's peak and preparations are complete_. Rin's heart lept in excitement and nervousness, but she did her best to carry on calmly. _Calm down Rin,_ she told herself as she walked into the circle, _the conditions are ideal; you'll get Saber even without a catalyst._

Gems in her hand, she began, "For the elements, Silver and Iron. For the Foundation, Stone and the Archduke of Pacts. And for the Ancestor, my great master, Schweinorg. Close the gates of the four directions. Come forth from the Crown and follow the forked road leading to the Kingdom." The circle was filling and beginning to glow green. "Fill, fill, fill, fill, fill. Repeat five times. But when each is filled, destroy it." The circle then began to glow blue. "Anfang. Heed my words. My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny. If you heed the Grail's call and obey my will and reason, then answer me! I hereby swear...that I shall be all the good in the world. That I shall defeat all evil in the world." Rin closed her eyes to focus as the light became blindingly bright Thou Seventh Heaven, clad in the three great words of power, come forth from the circle of binding, Guardian of the Scales!"

Falling to her knees and coughing from the smoke, once Rin's eyes readjusted to the darkness, she looked at her command seals. "That was flawless!" She exclaimed, "I'm sure I drew the strongest card!" She looked around, her heart dropping at realizing that she was the only one in the room, where's my servant? I know that the summoning worked! It was perfect in fact! Hearing a loud crash above her, Rin came to the horrifying realization. _NO! NO NO NO NO NO!_

Running up the stairs, the door was jammed to the room she heard the crash come from directly above her. Kicking the door open, she saw a tall, lean man with silver hair reclining on the sofa, relaxed.

Opening his eyes, Archer, initially shocked that it was a young Rin who had summoned him, quickly recovered his poker face and smirked at her. He hated to admit it, but he missed her...

Rin, disappointed as Hell, realized that this man could not be a Saber class servant. "Ugh! Damnit!" She face palmed. "So, who are you supposed to be?"

Archer tried to hide his disappointment, but then he quickly realized that of course she wouldn't recognize him. "That's the first thing you ask me? Looks like I've been drawn by a most unusual little master. Oh dear...looks like it was I who drew the shortest straw." Okay, so he was a little bit butt hurt, but only a little.

Rin, grimaced, _Why you little old..._ Walking over to the heroic spirit on her sofa she asked him, "Just to be clear; you are my servant right?"

"And are you my master? You weren't present when I was summoned."

_Ass! Answering a question with a question..._

"Just making sure that you are actually my servant and not someone else's. Master-Servant relationships should be established right off the bat." He agreed and asked for proof that she was indeed his master. Rin held out her right hand, "Is this the proof you're looking for?"

Wondering if this was the same Rin that he knew as Shirou, Archer replied, "Seriously miss? That's not what I was asking for." He got up from Rin's sofa and turned his back to her, looking out the window.

_How dare he speak to me in such a condescending manner!_

"I want to see if you are someone worth my loyalty," Turning around and approaching Rin in an opposing, condescending manner. "I'm utterly dissatisfied, but I do acknowledge you as my master. But on one condition. In the war to come, I will disregard anything you say."

_You son of a bitch!_

"I decide all battle policy."

"So, despite me being your master, you will refuse my input?" Rin was barely able to contain her fury.

"I trust you have no objections miss? Just hole up somewhere and keep yourself safe. I will win this grail for you as long as you stay out of my way. Any objections little miss?"

"I see," Rin replied, shaking in fury, "You begrudgingly acknowledge me, yet refuse my input? You are my servant aren't you?"

"Yes, but only in form," he replied with a cocky grin.

Oh! That did it! She didn't train for ten years to just be cast aside by her own servant! Remembering her command seals, "Fine! If that's how you're going to be!" She angrily yelled at the asshole on her sofa, "I'll use one on you!"

"Wait!" _Fuck,_ he'd gone too far...

"Anfang!"

"You wouldn't! You're wasting-"

"Shut up! And I would! You lousy ingrate!" She began chanting.

Crazy ass Rin! "Wait stop!" He was drowned out as she chanted over him.

"I said shut up! You're my servant got it?! That means you do everything I say!" A flash of blue. She'd just used her first command seal.

Though Archer regretted making Rin waste a command seal on him, he was pissed, "Are you stupid girl?! You just wasted a command seal! Command seals don't work that way! You can't just make such a broad command like that!"

Embarrassed that her fury and anger made her forget, Rin felt her cheeks heat. "So? It worked didn't it?"

Archer, begrudgingly, had to admit, though it had not worked in the way Rin had intended it to, it worked none the less. "Indeed, despite the fact that your command seal didn't work as you intended; it's quite annoying, but I do feel compelled to do as you say." Rin's face went from embarrassed to astonishment. "Please pardon my earlier rudeness master. Now that we are fully connected I do sense that you are indeed a first rate mage."

Rin blushed prettily at the compliment, "Sorry, but it's too late to score points with me through flattery." Seeing as her servant had no sword, or any weapon for that matter, she knew that he couldn't be a Saber, but he was still clearly a warrior class servant, "So, who are you exactly?"

"I don't know. All I know is that I am an Archer class servant of the Holy Grail," he responded as if he was simply telling her that he could not give her directions to the local gas station.

Rin nearly fell over at this revelation. What kind of servant has no idea who he is?! "Alright then Archer until you can remember your name, I will simply call you that, but in the meantime," she threw him a dust pan and a broom, "Clean up the mess you made of my house!"

* * *

 

The flight back to London wasn't so bad, however, they'd arrived at the airport during rush hour traffic, so getting to the clock tower was a bitch. Enya and Aiden hailed a taxi to speak with the Mage's Association. Their lancers followed them in ethereal form.

As soon as the Maeyers figured out that there were to be multiple teams for this Holy Grail War, they notified the Mage's Association immediately, who called an emergency meeting.

Currently waiting in the conference room, Enya and Aiden had both decided that it would be best not to bring their servants; if they were being included in the meeting, then likely other masters would be as well. They wanted to keep the element of surprise on their side. Aiden, fidgeting, much to Enya's annoyance, sat next to her near the front of the long conference table. Enya was about to grab the pencil he was currently tapping on the table when she heard Waver walk in.

"Hey!" She got up and greeted her friend, "how have things been? By the way, thank you for your 'help' a couple of weeks ago," she lowered her voice at this last sentence.

"Ha! Yes, she's been enjoying her assignment very much I'm afraid," he answered. Spotting Aiden, who was currently trying to make himself small, Waver strode over to him and thwacked him on the back of his head. "You ass! Give me back that bangle!"

"I-I have no idea what you're talking about," Aiden nervously tried to act innocent.

Enya sighed irritably, "Oh give it up already Aiden. The jig is up and you know it." Shifting through his back pack, Aiden gave Grainne's Bangle back to a furious Waver.

"You're lucky I'm too exhausted from the flight from Japan to hex the living shit out of you!"

"I give the three of you great responsibilities, yet you all still choose to act like children," said an irritated male voice. It was the head of the Mage's Association. After he took his seat at the head of the table, a bunch of other mages, many of whom had different colored command seals on their hands, and some who were clearly from different countries, filed in after him, including Reines; who's presence made Waver quickly hide the bangle in his robes.

"Now that everyone is here, let's begin." Everyone took a seat. "I trust by now that most, if not all of you, have noticed something amiss in this particular Grail War," after much murmuring from people at the large oak table, the head of the association continued, "Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia stole the Greater Grail in addition to breaking off from the Mage's Association. We sent seventy executors after him and his cohorts, but they were all slaughtered instantly by a Lancer class servant whom we believe to be the infamous Vlad the Impaler."

 _What?!_ Enya's blood went cold. The Yggdmillennia clan was notorious for often bucking the rules of the Mage's Association, but full blown rebellion?

"In response to Darnic's rebellion and theft of the Greater Grail, in summary, the Grail has responded by summoning-"

"Me," said a feminine but commanding voice. A blonde headed teenage girl wearing Medieval french armor appeared out of nowhere. "Greetings, chosen masters of the Holy Grail. I am Ruler, summoned by the Grail to neutrally moderate due to certain irregularities causing this Fifth Holy Grail War." Waiting for the excited talking and outrage to die down, she continued, "As it is unfair, as per the rules the Grail itself has laid out, for a single bloodline of mages to possess all of the servants of the Grail, it has responded by choosing seventy three additional masters and seventy three additional servants to compete for it. As you have all likely figured out by now, all eighty masters and their servants have been divided up into teams. Your respective team is marked by the color of the command seals you possess; Black, Red, Blue, Purple, Yellow, Orange, Green, and White."

Enya looked at her command seal, so then, she was team Blue.

"Initially, you will all be competing against each other in teams, which will begin in approximately one year, as to give the Grail enough time to choose all of it's masters and for the competing masters to summon their servants. In addition," she continued, "as in previous Grail Wars, there will be overseers from the Church. One for each team to be exact, and each will remain neutral as in previous wars; however, they will also be liaisons for their respective teams to the wishes of the Grail, which will be relayed to them by me."

As Ruler began to dissipate, she added, "I recommend that those of you who have received command seals to go ahead and meet with and strategize with the other members of your team." After visibly disappearing, a foreboding voice added, "let the wars begin."

* * *

 

**Author's Note: How does everyone like it so far? How is the premise? I know a lot of the lore from Fate/Zero and Unlimited Blade Works, but I'm still catching up on Fate/Apocrypha so I'm open to considering any suggestions! However, please keep in mind that this is loosely based off of the premise of Fate/Apocrypha, but the story line in Fuyuki (which is Blue team, and the team this pic focuses on) is also loosely based off of the Unlimited Blade Works story.**

**R &R Please! ^.^ No Flaming!**

**Next up: Lancer vs. Archer**


	3. Enemies or Allies

**Author's Note: So someone asked me how this will all work since there will be eighty masters and eighty servants, citing that he feels that this will be too overwhelming and destructive for the non-magus populace not to notice. I understand your concerns, which is why I have taken some liberties with this story. As I've said multiple times I'm going to have to take some liberties with magecraft and the Fate/Stay Night premises in order for this all to work, but I do not believe that these liberties are going to stray too far nor be too hard to believe. These will come to light as the story unfolds so do not worry.**

**As for the fact that eighty servants and masters creates an overwhelming amount of characters for a story, I will only be following the perspectives of Waver, Rin, Shirou, Enya, and Aiden for the vast majority of the story, whom, combined, only constitutes of two teams; which means that the only a relatively small fraction of the eighty servants and their masters will be introduced and explored in this fic.**

**I understand that this story can seem very overwhelming, and believe me, as the writer, this is quite overwhelming; but I believe that this story has great potential.**

**If you don't like the story, then don't read it! This is fan fiction; it is free to read and it is meant to be enjoyed.**

**My advice to readers: try to expand your thinking (not that you can't! If you're on fan fiction, that means that you already have a very creative and expansive imagination!); but at the same time, don't overthink the stuff above too much. Explanations will come in time and many things will simply be left open to individual interpretation.**

**Also, lemon in this chapter.**

**Enjoy! ^.^**

* * *

 

"So how exactly is this going to work?" Enya asked the priest sitting next to her on the airliner. "I mean, this all cannot take place in Fuyuki right? Or a single country for that matter." She mused.

"Do not be ridiculous, of course not," Kirei answered her as if she were spelling the word "cat" wrong. "However, Team Blue's first round _will_ be taking place in Fuyuki City. That has been agreed upon so far, since the Holy Grail Wars have traditionally taken place there."

"I think what she's getting at is: how will this all work without anyone else noticing or destroying a large portion of the populace?" An invisible voice asked.

"Hey!" Enya loudly whispered to her lancer, "You're supposed to stay quiet!" Enya's cheeks went red as she realized that the other people on the plane must have thought she was crazy just then. Turning back to Kirei, "He's got a point though."

Kirei sighed irritably, it was late and he was tired from taking two long plane trips in less than thirty six hours. He was not in the mood for a thousand questions from the young woman and her servant. "The overseers are responsible for that. It is something that you do not need to concern yourself with quite yet. However, we have all been advised by the mage's association to urge all of the masters and servants under our authority to keep everything as quiet as possible. Preferably, to keep their battles in remote locations. The old rule: eliminating witnesses is to be strictly enforced. If not, then the 'cleaners' will be dispatched by the mage's association," Kirei finished grimly.

Enya shuddered at the thought. The "cleaners" were deadly and infamous among mages. Just as much as the "executioners".

Sensing the young woman's anxiety over the possibility of the deaths of thousands, he assured her, "Enya, do not concern yourself with the details as to how the battles will go largely unnoticed; that is all my responsibility. You and lancer should only be concerned with your own, individual responsibilities and fighting for the Grail." Seeing that this finally put her at ease, he reclined in his chair and turned off his light. The Mage's Association had been generous enough to give Enya and himself seats in Business Class. _I'm getting too old for these thirty six hour days_ , he thought to himself as he closed his tired eyes. True, he was only in his mid forties, but unlike in his thirties, long days and long trips with a lot of activity were beginning to wear on him; which is probably why he had perpetual bags under his eyes.

Enya also thought about trying to get some sleep, but there was too much on her mind. Opening her mind up to CuChulainn she asked him, _What do you think we_ _should do when we arrive to Fuyuki?_

_I don't know about you, but personally, I'd like to check out the competition._

_They're not competition, CuChulainn, they're our allies._

_For now they are, but eventually they will be our enemies. Also, who's to say that some of them won't try to knock us off right off the bat?_

_I suppose you're right,_ she conceded. _Let me at least_ _get some rest first before we start sizing up our opponents though_. Closing off her mind to her servant, Enya vaguely wondered how Aiden was faring. He and Waver had been placed on the same team, Yellow, by the Grail, much to their distaste considering the fact that Aiden had gained Diarmuid through thievery from Waver. As much as Enya and Waver were disappointed that they were not chosen to be on the same team, Waver was thrilled that he was going to a remote village in Ireland instead of back to Japan.

 _The cuisine is awful_ , he'd told her with disgust, _no thank you! I'd rather be stuck in a village without air conditioning than go back to that awful place!_

Enya would never understand why her friend hated the country so much, but she supposed to each his own. Personally, Enya was thrilled to be going to a place so different than anywhere else she'd been to! Reclining in her own chair, she let her thoughts drift and closed her eyes attempting to sleep.

* * *

 

Rin tried calling the Clock Tower to get ahold of Kirei the day after she'd summoned Archer, but she was told that he had already left for his flight back to Fuyuki. _I suppose I'll just call him tomorrow_ , she thought to herself after hanging up the phone. Yesterday she'd skipped school again in order to show Archer the city, but today was pushing it, she had to go today.

Washing her face, she brushed and styled her hair as she usually did, threw her school uniform on, and left for school.

Arriving to school, Rin watched the other students chat as they all headed to their respective classes, however, when she crossed the gates to the school yard, a chill went down her spine. _Archer! Do you feel that? There's a bounded field surrounding the school!_ She opened her mind to her servant. _Yes_ , he telepathically responded, _I feel it too._

"There's nothing we can do about it now", Rin said as she looked around, "not while there's so many people around. We'll talk later."

Going up the stairs, Miss Fujimura danced passed her. "Hello Rin! Glad to see you're back today!"

Rin smiled at her English teacher, "Thank you Miss Fujimura." Rin heard the woman make a slight "wee" sound as she danced up the stairs, making Rin shake her head a bit, That woman can be so ridiculous sometimes.

Happy to have gotten to homeroom without running into Shinji Matou and subsequently being harassed by the self-absorbed young man, Rin took her supplies out to begin the day.

* * *

 

_Enya was cold, shivering cold in fact, in bed, until she felt strong arms wrap around her, making her feel warm._

_"Emer..." a familiar voice cooed in her ear._

_Emer? Did he just call me Emer?_

_This thought quickly left her as she felt the man take her breast in his hand, massaging it. A soft moan escaped her mouth and something hard pressed into her thigh. Opening her eyes, she was in a room that appeared to be from a time long ago in history, there was a fire going so she could slightly see everything in a warm, dim light. Twisting her head to look at the man behind her, she realized, to her horror, that it was her servant, Lancer! And he was naked! And to Enya's horror, she realized that she was also naked!_

_Using his other hand, he gently pulled her head towards his to kiss her. Instead of pushing him away like she wanted to, she instead, melted into his kiss, letting him push his tongue into her mouth. Feeling his hand leave her breast, she felt it trail down her stomach and stop to cup her bare sex, eliciting a lustful moan from her into his mouth. She began to unconsciously grind her hips into his as he slipped a finger into her heat moving it in and out._

_Mortified that her servant was doing something so inappropriate and that Enya, as his master, was not only not stopping him; instead, she was also enjoying it as if she wasn't in control of her own body and responses._

_Pulling his finger out of her slit, he pushed his hardened member between her legs. Enya felt wetness drip out of her when he began to push and pull his manhood between her thighs, rubbing his shaft delightfully against her wet pussy as he began tracing circles on her clit. As he did this, Enya felt the familiar heat of intense arousal pool into her womb. God! Did she want him inside of her!_

_Turning her own body around to face him, she saw that Lancer's hair was pulled down and draped around his shoulders. Pulling him in for another kiss, Enya was genuinely shocked at how experienced she suddenly was in kissing him. Lost in their kiss, she let out a strangled moan when she felt his hand dip down again to feel her sex._

_His slick fingers exploring her nether regions, he broke their kiss to whisper huskily in her ear, "Gods, Emer, so wet for me." He said it in Gaelic, but Enya somehow still knew what he was saying. She was suddenly exposed to the cold air as the furs were pulled away from her body as Lancer got on top of her. Looking down at her own body, she saw that she didn't really look like herself; she was very fair with milky skin, her dark hair was so long it came down to her hips, she was already thin, but now she was even thinner, and her breasts were more rounded like a more matured woman's._

_Enya let out a strangled moan as Lancer gently bit her pulse while cupping her breasts in his hands. She was cold but her body was on fire. Dragging her long nails down his back and wrapping her legs around his waist, trying to push him inside of her, she involuntarily moan, "CuChulainn, please..." What the fuck? Did she just speak in Gaelic? She knew spells in gaelic, but speaking it was an ability she did not possess._

_Her plea seemed to break him, even in this light, when she saw him lift his head up; his red eyes were very dark with desire and, was that love she saw too? Spreading her legs, he impailed her. She'd become so slick he went inside in one swift push, he closed his eyes seeming to relish in pleasure as Enya moaned his name again. Getting up onto his knees without disconnecting them, Enya seemed to somehow know what to do as they began their lustful dance. Steadying himself on his knees, he effortlessly lifted Enya up by the curves in her waist, she stiffened her back and arched it so that her upper back was on the mattress while her hips were up, wrapping her legs around his waist._

_Going slowly at first to get a rhythm, Lancer's pace quickened wildley, pulling out almost completely before pushing himself back into Enya's core. Enya soon began to feel hot and was beginning to sweat as was Lancer as he pushed in and out of her at a pace that almost didn't seem human, almost animalistic in style. Enya actually found this to be very erotic, and soon she began to feel a tingling deep within her. This one was quite unfamiliar, the stimulation was much deeper than what she normally experienced by herself. It built and built until Enya could hear herself loudly moaning almost involuntarily. As she felt the pleasure deep within her womb peak, she put her hands on her lower abdomen where she felt the pressure. When she thought that she could no longer take the pressure, something in her lower abdomen snapped. A long, drug out moan of Lancer's true name escaped Enya's mouth as the pressure released in hard contractions gripping Lancer's swollen member._

Opening her eyes to darkness, Enya was sweating, sitting up and getting re-oriented. Feeling her body, her purple silk nightgown was still on, her hair was mid-back instead of at her hip, and she had her athletic build instead of the skinniness she'd looked in her dream. However, her panties were quite soaked through, much to her embarrassment and she was slightly sweaty. Heart still racing she whispered, "Lancer, are you there?"

Eyes adjusted to the dark of the room, she saw her cobalt suit wearing servant materialize before her, "Yeah," he responded coming over to her. "You okay?" he asked with concern, "you were moaning and thrashing in your sleep. Were you having a nightmare?"

Looking at him, she felt her face heat. Did she seriously just have a wet dream about her own servant? _Ugh...I did...It's probably from being so exhausted and low on mana._ Though she'd not yet had sex, Enya found herself craving it when she was low on mana, and summoning her servant without getting adequate rest for a prolonged period of time must have taken its toll.

"It doesn't matter," she said, turning on the bedside lamp. The room was pretty bare, but Enya supposed that even if the church was a farse, it still had to be a convincing farse. "How long was I asleep?" she asked her servant. She and Kirei had gotten to the church at around eight o'clock in the morning. Both of them exhausted and saying very little to one another at the airport and during the drive to the church in Fuyuki, the priest showed Enya to an empty room with only a single bed with a cross hanging over it, a simple desk, and a nightstand with a lamp and a bible on it. After telling Enya where there was food and drink and a shower in case she needed one, he said something about taking a rest before walking off.

"Hmmm..." the blue man mused, "you went to sleep around ten o'clock and it's about ten o'clock now; so about twelve hours."

"Ugh...I told you to wake me up after six!" Enya scolded Lancer. She was trying to get rid of her jet lag.

"I tried!" He responded defensively, "but as soon as you'd wake up, you'd fall back asleep within two seconds; and after ten tries, I finally gave up and figured you probably needed the rest!"

Yawning and getting out of bed, Enya pulled her matching silk house coat on. "I guess it doesn't matter," Enya muttered. Going through her luggage to find her clothes and a fresh pair of underwear, she asked, "What'd you do while I was sleeping?" She was genuinely curious, but she was also trying to make small talk; she was still embarrassed about her dream and hoped to God that Lancer hadn't seen any of it.

"Scouted the city, invisibly of course!" he added the last part after Enya shot him a glare.

Picking out a pair of black leggings and a long purple v-neck shirt, she asked him, "Find anything interesting?"

Lancer smiled at this, he did in fact find something very interesting, "there's a school nearby, and it's surrounded by a bounded field."

Enya stopped at this; this information from Lancer was interesting indeed. "It's probably not an enemy master from another team; it was probably created by a member of our own, but still, we should check it out just to be safe."

Lancer couldn't help but to smile as he left the room to give Enya her privacy. He was hoping that she'd want to go look at the school as soon as possible after learning about the bounded field; and his master did not disappoint.

After some time, Enya came out of her room fully dressed with brown combat boots. The two of them walked out of the church and Enya pulled on a long, light weight purple coat with a hood to help conceal her face.

As they started walking, Lancer stopped and held out his hand to Enya. When she looked at him questioningly, he told her, "It's a ways from here, and I'm pretty fast. We'll get there faster if I carry you."

Enya looked at her servant for a moment, her dream still on her mind, before responding, "Okay, but no funny business."

Lancer couldn't help but to smirk at this, so she _had_ read quite a bit about his legends. "No idea what you mean," he said picking his petite master up before jumping off into the night.

* * *

 

When Lancer and Enya arrived at the high school, Enya felt the field immediately. Though she was unfamiliar with this particular brand of magic, she knew that it had the potential to kill everyone within it if it were ever activated. She was about to go around destroying the field when she felt something. It was a distance away, but with Enya's heightened intuition, it was unmistakable; she felt the presence of another master and a servant. "You feel that?" she asked Lancer.

"Yeah," he responded, materializing the red spear, Gae Bolg.

Wanting to check out her own Lancer in combat, but also wanting to gauge the abilities of the other master and servant, Enya smiled and turned to Lancer, "Go check it out. Engage, but don't kill unless I say so. I'll be right there." As he jumped off towards the fenced roof with the water tower, Enya pulled up her hood and headed towards the track field to watch.

Rin was absolutely disgusted that someone would dare to put up a bounded field in her territory no less. She was happy to hear that Archer agreed with her. As Rin just finished removing the unknown marking, a voice mockingly said, "Aw, you gonna remove it? What's the hurry?" Looking up she saw a man in cobalt clue with a bright red spear resting over his shoulders. Rin felt a chill go up her spine, Another servant? "So, is this your handiwork?"

"No," The man responded in an irritatingly nonchalant manner, "my kind just fight and do as we're told." Looking behind Rin, he added mockingly, "Isn't that right, my invisible buddy?"

So then he is another servant, Rin thought. Looking around, she realized, _Shit! I'm walled in on all four sides!_

"So then little lady," the Lancer servant said as power surged through his spear, "I suppose that means you're my enemy."

Enya, observing in the shadows of the track field, simply observed as Lancer jumped from the tower and feigned attacking the other master. Watching the girl swiftly, but narrowly dodge Lancer's attacks, Enya sighed in disappointment, until she heard the girl chant something in latin. When the girl's legs glowed neon green-blue, her interest was piqued, but interest soon turned into fear when the girl's spell allowed her to jump over the fence and her servant, in non-corporeal form, caught her. Now, the battle had been taken to the track field; where all four of them were. Enya panicked as she realized that she was loosing the advantage of concealment, she decided to make a break for it into the school while the other master and servant were too distracted to feel her presence.

Opening her mind, Enya telepathically yelled at Lancer as she saw him about to deliver a killing blow to the girl, _Hey! I said don't kill her!_ Much to her relief, he got the message in time and he purposefully missed, but barely. Thankfully, the girl's servant decided to finally materialize and block Lancer with swords? Was he the Saber servant. Enya began to worry that they were going to be fighting the Saber servant until she heard the girl call him "Archer". _An Archer with swords huh? Interesting..._

Rin was relieved when Archer finally decided to materialize and help her, _incompetent bastard!_ She thought until she realized, as the two servants stared each other down, that another master was nearby; this had officially become a battle and Archer had been waiting for Rin's commands.

"So," Lancer began running his mouth, much to Enya's dismay, "you're an Archer then? Who are you, you sly old coot?!" When there was silence. "Take out your bow then!" Silence. "So then, a bowman who fancies himself a swordsman? Go on then! I'll wait for you."

 _Oh my God, shut up Lancer!_ Enya was embarrassed her servant was acting a fool.

As Archer simply stop there, he looked slightly to the side at Rin, who was distracted trying to locate Lancer's master until now. Determination in her eyes, "Archer, show me what you've got! You'll get no aid from me!" Archer smiled at this, gripping his swords, he began to power and gather his energy to attack the swift Lancer servant.

Rin and Enya waited for the battle to begin, but before they could even blink, Archer had disappeared. _No_ , Enya reconsidered, _he left his spot so quickly it looked as if_ _he'd teleported._ Thankfully, Lancer, being the swiftest class, deftly blocked him. The quick attack was meant to unnerve Lancer, and it worked; Enya saw the genuine shock on his face when Archer quickly attacked him. Thankfully for Enya though, Lancer quickly recovered and got serious. _Good!_ She thought, _You NEED to take this_ _seriously and quit dicking around dumbass!_

Despite the fact that both Rin and Enya initially thought their servants to be idiots and slightly incompetent; when it came to a real battle, both masters were relieved to see that their servants took their battles very seriously. Though Rin and Enya were both considering the possibility of attacking each other, Rin locating Enya, and Enya fighting Rin to gauge her competence as a mage; both masters now found themselves so entranced with the epic battle between servants that they'd lost interest in each other. That is, until they all heard someone shift in the school.

Lancer, hearing the movement and sensing that a new person had entered the vicinity, was pissed; "Who's there?!" His teeth were like fangs and his eyes had become more beastial.

 _Shit! A Student!_ Both Rin and Enya thought. Realizing that whoever the student was, they'd seen too much, there was no way Enya could freeze him and disappear as she'd done with the villagers in Ireland; the track field was nearly destroyed and the student would probably be pretty believable, especially since Fuyuki was notorious for having weird shit go on a lot due to the Grail Wars.

 _Lancer..._ Enya said sadly.

_I got it, don't worry about it. I'll come and find you._

_Please...make it quick and as painless as possible,_ was all Enya said before fleeing into the night.

* * *

 

**Author's note: So! This is a VERY rough draft of this chapter (I was too excited not to post it tonight!) I'll post the final draft soon with more POV from Rin and Archer.**

**Oh! And the lemon wasn't there for it's own sake btw; it will mean something later in the story!**


	4. Shirou

**Author's Note: Sorry for the delay everyone! I haven't given up on this story or any of the others; I've just been busy studying for my boards.**

**Enjoy ^.^**

* * *

 

 _I can't be anywhere near these premises! This school_ _will be a crime scene by tomorrow morning once they find the dead student_ , Enya thought to herself as she hastily ran from the school grounds.

Outside of the school grounds, Enya leaned against a tree to try catching her breath. She practically jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Jeez! Don't scare me like that!" Enya wanted to punch Lancer.

"My bad," he responded rather solemnly. Lancer was not exactly in a good mood due to the events that just transpired; he was supposed to be a hero, which entailed not killing the innocent.

"Let's head back," Enya said to him, starting the walking back to the fake church. She wanted this night to be over, and it was disappointing that the night had begun so well yet ended so badly. Having to kill an innocent person due to her own negligence was quite distressing, but she was so sure that nobody would be at the school around eleven o'clock at night.

About to turn a corner, Enya suddenly felt a weak, but quite alive presence. "Lancer! I thought you took care of him!" Enya said as she ran into the bushes growing on the side of the road to hide. Opening the bushes a little to see, she saw the kid, well, she supposed he was actually a young man since he looked almost eighteen, was stumbling past her with a big blood stain on his chest.

Appearing next to her again, Lancer told her, "I did! Right through his heart! How is he still alive? Nobody survives Gae Bolg." He was just as baffled as Enya. After both of them got over how incredulous the situation was, Enya finally spoke; "He knows too much Lancer...we're going to have to follow him home and finish him there...in his own home." She finished darkly.

* * *

Rin exhaustedly laid down on her couch downstairs waiting for Archer to return to her. As if the summoning of Archer a couple of days ago wasn't exhausting enough, using that spell to revive Shirou had done a good job at draining almost all of the energy Rin's had recovered since then. _Lancer's master._  Rin saw Lancer's master flee when the fighting broke up between the servants. _The girl in purple_. Rin didn't see her face, only her back as she fled the school an into the darkness. Archer then reappeared in her living room, handing Rin the pendant she'd used to save Emiya.

"As I suspected, there's no more mana left," Rin said to herself sadly. She's unlocked her father's box and the pendent had been in it, full of ten years worth of mana. Truly a prize on its own merits! Now, the pendant was meritless, save for simply being a memento from her late father. True, Rin desperately wanted to save Shirou and had no regrets on using the pendant to do so, but still...

Suddenly shooting up from her seat on the couch; "Oh no! Once Lancer and his master realize that Shirou is alive, they'll..." Rin trailed off, she didn't want to say it, but she knew that this hellish night wasn't done for Shirou.

"Archer!" Rin looked at the stoic heroic spirit. "We need to go save him or all of this was worth nothing!"

* * *

Lancer, putting Enya down after following the kid for a few blocks, finally broke his silence. "Wait here. I'll take care of him."

Enya, remembering how sad Lancer sounded when he told here that he'd take care of the student the first time told her servant that she would take care of him.

"This is my fuck up Lancer. It's only fair that I do it..." she said this a little shakily. Unlike most mages her age, Enya had yet to kill, and despite the fact that mages killed often, she was terrified of what she saw as "dirtying" her own soul. Her parents had killed, just as her other relatives have, in order to keep their magecraft a secret from outsiders; which included mages and non-mages alike. The Maeyer magic was old and powerful Druid magic, which is magic derived from the elements and nature herself, though they had long lost the ability to use true magic. Enya liked to think that their magic was one of the cleanest and closest to the real magic of old used by sorcerers back when the world was young.

Looking at Lancer, his mouth opened as if he were going to speak in protest. He wanted to tell Enya that battle and killing was his job, but his master spoke so firmly on the matter that he decided against it. Nodding his head in agreement, he told her that he would wait outside of the residence to make sure that nobody interfered. Watching Enya pull the hood of her coat up to hide her face and shakily pull out a pair of gloves, he saw her take a deep breath. Lancer's master was so nervous about executing the task at hand that the barrier she'd built up between them so that they might have more privacy from each other's private thoughts and feelings briefly came down and he felt himself flooded with her fear and- was that grief the cobalt servant felt as well?

"You've never killed before have you?" Lancer asked his master. As soon as he'd asked, he felt Enya's barrier come back between them as he felt her emotions suddenly cut off from him. His master told him nothing, but her down cast almost shameful glance to the ground told him "no". Attempting to give his master some encouragement, he told her that it was normal to be afraid because killing wasn't easy, and it should never be. Stiffening at his words, she indignantly told her servant that she wasn't afraid to kill the lad, rather, she was simply nervous about leaving any trace behind. Sighing inwardly at Enya, Lancer was beginning to think that the lass was a bit of an enigma; she was powerful, competent and careful, but he was beginning to realize that she was also quite insecure, sentimental and often ruled by her emotions. Indeed, Lancer's master was an oddity for a mage...

As Lancer secured the perimeters, Enya entered the open doors to the front yard of the compound. The young man must have stumbled through them and forgot to lock them, as was evident from the bloody hand print left on the right door. As she walked into the middle of the yard, Enya closed her tired eyes and focused on trying to find the young man whom was supposed to be dead earlier. Sensing a presence in a couple of rooms before her, Enya pulled the obsidian dagger from her pocket. The young man's presence felt weak, so she was hoping that he was too weak to be conscious so she could simply cut his throat in his sleep and be done with it in a relatively clean manner. Natural obsidian was fairly fragile and usually only good for slicing, but Enya's obsidian had been forged by herself with fire elemental mage craft; thus, it was stronger and harder to break, and she could also use mage craft to change its properties as needed. Carefully approaching the front door to what appeared to be the main entrance to the interior of the compound's main building, Enya was shocked to find that it was unlocked.

 _He's either stupid or too weak to remember to have locked his own doors after just being killed_ , Enya thought to herself. Either way though, this guy was a dead man.

Looking at the shoes on the landing before a higher wooden floor, Enya remembered that the Japanese generally didn't wear shoes indoors. Silently wiping her shoes as to make sure she didn't track evidence into the building, Enya crept towards the sliding door on the right side of the hallway. The young man's presence was strongest before that room, and the fact that this room was the only one with any light confirmed this; however, this also probably meant that the young man was awake and conscious, which put a kink in her plan to kill him more gently.

Heart racing at the fact that she was about to kill a conscious, speaking person, Enya stood for a moment and considered her options. One, she could burst in the room, gaining the element of surprise and kill him before he even knew what hit him; two, she could quietly walk in and kill him quickly if he was passed out, which was quite possible. Gripping the dagger, Enya decided it would be best to quietly enter, even if that meant a confrontation.

* * *

Still reeling from what had happened only hours ago, Shirou had finally managed to calm his racing heart, which he was surprised was still beating at all, let alone racing in fear. However, he was still trying to figure out what had happened at school.

 _Was it all a dream?_ Shirou was struggling to remember what had happened prior to waking up on the floor of the hallway at school. He remembered watching the man in red and the man in blue fighting fiercely on the track field at a speed that couldn't be humanly possible, then the rest was blank. The next thing he remembered was waking up on the floor of one of the school's hallway with a bloody tear in his shirt right where his heart is; it was as if he had been skewered through the heart, however...

 _I couldn't have been struck through my heart because I'm alive_. The whole thing made no sense to Shirou; in fact, a lot of things weren't making sense in the past couple of days. He had blood stains on his uniform, he felt weak and exhausted as if he was recovering from some sort of trauma; but he was alive and breathing without any actual wounds on his body. There was Sakura, Tohsaka, and Shinji missing from school on the same days, and not to mention the fact that the weird blue marking had appeared on his hand the day his three classmates had missed school, which is something they never did.

Head already hurting from tonight, trying to figure out what had just happened to his at school was making him feel worse. Shirou just wanted to take a shower, change clothes, and go to bed and forgot about this whole night. Standing up from the table, he took his bloody uniform shirt and white undershirt off and threw them in the trash, and groaned at the thought that he was going to have to buy another one with money he didn't have. _Guess I'll just have to clean the other one everyday until I can afford to buy a new one_ , Shirou's tired mind concluded. Both his uniform shirt and his white undershirt were done for, but his undershirt wasn't as big of a deal since he had plenty of those.

Yawning, Shirou went to turn off the lights so he could shower and go to bed, when the door opened unexpectedly. Startled, he saw a woman dressed in a purple coat with the hood up, holding a dagger in her right, gloved hand. The two stared at one another for a moment in shock, before the purple woman spoke:

"How?" She said, surprise in her voice as she stared at Shirou's bare unscathed chest. "How did you survive Gae Bolg? Nobody is supposed to survive that!" She sounded more surprised and saddened than angry, but she still had that strange black dagger in her hand and she was an intruder. Thinking quickly, Shirou remembered the rolled up posters he'd fought with Fuji-nee earlier.

"You should have died..." She trailed off with sadness in her voice. "Why did you have to survive?! You're only going to meet more pain!" Sad, angry tears looked to be watering her eyes.

As Shirou was about to dive for the posters to use them as a defensive weapon with re-enforcement magic, the purple woman shouted something in a language he didn't understand. As a wave of white light passed through the room, Shirou was stunned for a moment in surprise as he didn't know what the hell he'd just seen before recovering and diving for the posters. "Trace on!" He shouted as he felt his mana flow from his hands to the glowing, re-enforced poster. The purple woman on the other hand, seemed just as stunned, but for different reasons.

"So, you're a mage then. That's probably why my stun spell didn't work on you," she said more to herself than to Shirou.

"Lady, I don't know who you are or what you want, but get out of my house," Shirou growled back at her.

The purple woman sighed irritably at his words, "I was hoping to kill you gently in your sleep or by stunning you. You might be a mage, but you're a weak one and you've witnessed too much." She narrowed her eyes and got into a fighting stance with her dagger, holding it like a sword before chanting, " _claíomh dóiteáin_." Much to Shirou's horror, the purple woman's dagger transformed into a black, obsidian-like long sword. He might have been able to handle her with the dagger, but another sword? Even Shirou himself didn't think he could stand much of a chance against her.

"Prepare to die!" The purple woman shouted before charging Shirou. Blocking her attacks, both mages seemed surprised that Shirou's make shift sword could hold against her real one. As their duel raged on in Shirou's living room, everything was being destroyed or knocked over in their path. Trying to get her outside in the open where he could fight her better, Shirou went on the offense as well. As the two mages crossed and locked swords, each trying to overpower the other, the purple woman's hood came down to reveal a young caucasian face with surprisingly warm eyes.

"It seems I may have under estimated you," the woman ground out as she strained to hold Shirou's "sword" with her own. "This sort of mage craft you use is quite simple and easy to use, however, you seem to have mastered it better than any other mage I've ever met," the woman conceded to Shirou before unlocking their swords and jumping back, putting distance between them. "As impressive and curious you are to me though, it's time to end this!" She shouted. " _Threisiú!_ " At this chant, the woman's black sword began to glow a dark purple within its darkness. If this had occurred under any other circumstances, Shirou would have been impressed; but right now, he was fighting for his life against a stronger and more experienced mage than himself.

" _Cead bliain mear_!" The woman charged Shirou, her sword glowing brighter. Getting into his defensive stance, Shirou pushed his mana further into the poster for better reinforcement to block her, what he assumed to be, strengthened attack. He blocked her, however, he soon found himself flat on his back in his front yard with the wind knocked out of him. Scrambling back up, he realized that whatever spell the woman had cast had just blown him through two doors, and now his "sword" was literally shredded.

 _Shit! If I'm going to survive her, then I need something stronger to fight her with_ , Shirou's mind raced; adrenaline pumping wildly through his body. Looking towards the shed, Shirou thought his best bet on finding something better to help him would be in there.

* * *

Recovering from the powerful blow she'd just delivered to the novice mage, Enya quickly jumped through the walls she'd just shoved the kid though in his house. Looking around the yard in which the boy had landed, Enya didn't see him anywhere, however, he couldn't have gone far as she wasn't too far behind him. Scanning the yard, Enya tried to find the boy she was currently trying to kill by feeling for his mana. At first, she couldn't feel anything; _His mana is probably too depleted for me to feel him out the usual way._ Opening her mind, Enya felt the dreaded head rush from doing so; but this enabled her to feel out even the slightest bit of mana. Most mages weren't able to do this, and if they could, they preferred not to because doing so typically weakened them in a battle, but divination, using her mind's eye and feeling out and harnessing natural mana was practically Enya's specialty.

Scanning the yard of the compound with her mind's eye, Enya sensed all of the mana of her surroundings; the trees, the grass, the natural mana from the dirt, and even the air. Turning her eye towards the shed, she sensed very weak, but human mana. _There you are!_  Closing off her mind, Enya briefly sat on the ground long enough for her head to stop spinning. She could take a minute or two to recover, the boy wasn't strong enough to be an actual threat, especially not now.

Feeling her head stop spinning, Enya was finally able to recover enough to get back up. Walking to the shed, she realized that there was a magical shield barring the doors. Frustrated, Enya wanted to get this done and over with so she could go back to the fake church and rest. "C'mon kid! You're making this harder on yourself!" Enya began to bang on the door, vaguely hoping that the boy would actually open up for her. "I'm stronger than you and you know it! No matter how hard you fight me, you know that this night is only going to be the end for you. Now, you can either die painfully, or painlessly if you just open the doors for me." No response, just as she figured. The kid was stubbornly hanging on to life. Don't get Enya wrong; she didn't want to kill the kid, but she had to and his tenacity was making her impatient and frustrated.

 _Screw it. I was hoping not to waste anymore mana, but it looks like I have no choice._ Focusing her mana for a blow powerful enough to break the reinforced doors, Enya suddenly felt a strong, growing surge of power from within the shed. _I've felt this before, this type of energy_. As she realized what was happening, horror suddenly struck through her like lightning. _He's summoning_ _a servant!_ _This kid is a master?!_ Enya felt the energy reach its height as its strength stopped growing, which meant one thing; the boy's servant has fully manifested and will likely be charging her down any moment.

Quickly backing away from the doors, Enya watched with horror as the doors suddenly broke open by a blonde woman in full body armor while holding an invisible sword. " _I bhfeidhm sciath,_ _stíl cré-mhiotail!_ " Enya summoned the earth before her as a shield and reinforced it through combining and strengthening the natural metals and minerals within the earth itself. Normally, this would have been an effective shield, however, she was using it to block a servant's attack; thus Enya was thrown backwards as the shield could only keep her from getting a direct killing blow. In fact, the shield had been so ineffective against blocking the servant's attack, that Enya was too stunned to realize that she'd been thrown six feet up and about twenty feet back until she hit the ground. Hard.

Waking up from her brief slumber on the ground, Enya realized she had hit a tree and injured her shoulder given the seering pain she was feeling. She must have hit the back of her head fairly hard because she could only see a blur of silver charging towards her. The servant was coming to finish her off. Enya felt herself go cold with panic as she struggled to get up and summon another shield, but to no avail; she'd been stunned too badly to focus. _Fuck me...I'm finished._ Just as Enya was about to accept that her own demise was coming, she felt arms pick her up and the rush of wind as Lancer came to her rescue.

Lancer chastised himself for not coming to Enya's rescue sooner, but he wasn't summoned for help and he wanted to see how she'd fare briefly fighting against another servant. His master had done well defending herself against such a strong servant, but he had unintentionally let her get injured in the process. Setting Enya against the stone wall that surrounded the compound, he asked her if she was going to be alright.

Enya, regaining her bearings, went from shocked to pissed. "Lancer! Engage and destroy!" She shouted at him. The female servant's master was a novice, and regardless of whether or not they were all on the same team, Enya didn't want a novice slowing them down; especially since the servant's master was so incompetent as a mage that he had no idea what was currently going on besides the fact that Enya was trying to kill him. The boy didn't belong in this war.

The cobalt blue servant smiled at her response; "Two battles in one night. Just when I thought the night couldn't get any better!" Lancer happily exclaimed before running to fight the other servant at lightning fast speed.

Confident that Lancer could best the other servant considering that her master was weak and clueless, in addition to the fact that the servant was much slower than Lancer, Enya turned her focus towards her wounds. She still felt slightly dizzy and nauseous from hitting the back of her head so hard, but she doubted she was concussed. Her back ached from hitting the tree, but she didn't feel like there would be any permanent damage; however her shoulder was another story. Unzipping her dirt covered jacket down and pulling her shirt down her shoulder to examine the damage, Enya felt her blood go cold at the sight. The skin wasn't broken, save for the abrasions, but her joint was protruding; she'd clearly dislocated her shoulder. Enya's left arm was going to be useless until she could get help fixing her shoulder.

Turning her attention towards the servants' battle, Enya was surprised that Lancer was having difficulty beating the female servant. Focusing what little mana she had left to spare before she'd go into re-bound, a potentially dangerous condition for mages to be in, Enya sent it to Lancer so he could use his noble phantasm and end this madness. _End it now Lancer_! Enya's mind screamed at him.

Lancer must have gotten the message from Enya because as soon as she screamed at him in her mind to finish the other servant, he jumped back and gripped his spear, preparing to use Gae Bolg.

"Master! I need your mana so I can use my noble phantasm!" The female servant yelled at the bewildered shirtless young man behind her.

"What?! Are you kidding me?! I can use projection magic, but that's about it!"

As the female servant responded she'd do the best she could to protect them from Lancer, Enya knew this fight was finished. Gae Bolg glowed brightly, the mana Enya had just imbued him with was flowing through him to his spear perfectly, making the dirt rise and blow around his feet. As Lancer leapt in the air to execute the killing blow, Enya felt her heart race in excitement; she had yet to see her servant's famous noble phantasm and the fact that she was about to thrilled her to bits.

" _Gae Bolg!_ " Lancer shouted, executing his noble phantasm. There was a loud, high pitched noise as the servant's spear was thrown with such powerful force that the velocity of it literally pierced the air.

Enya stared in amazement at her own servant's strength and power; he was even more impressive that she could have ever hoped. Unfortunately for Enya, this was shortly lived as the other servant was struck, but instead of having her heart pierced, she was thrown up and then down by the black colored magical forced behind the Gae Bolg. _Did he miss? How could he miss her?!_ _Gae Bolg never misses!_ As the dust cleared, however, and the other servant got back on her feet while holding her bloody shoulder, Enya realized that Lancer didn't miss her; she'd blocked his attack!

Pride wounded, but lacking the mana to continue, Enya ordered Lancer to disengage. She saw the disappointment on his face as he gently picked her up to take her back to the fake church.

"No!" The female servant shouted to them. "You will fall here, tonight, Lancer!"

Brushing the other servant off, Lancer disengaged effectively and he and Enya flew off into the night. As they flew from roof to roof, Enya and Lancer realized that the other servant was following them. Telling Lancer to stop, the pair landed in an alley way. "We can't let them know where we are holding up; we're going to have to stand our ground and fight," Enya explained. She had underestimated the other servant, but they will be able to defeat her; the other servant was badly wounded despite parrying Gae Bolg.

Enya and Lancer readied themselves to stand their ground and fight the other servant until she was defeated. As she rounded the corner, the servants got into their fighting stances. Enya felt the other servant's mana considerably weakened; this fight shouldn't take long, but Enya was going to feel terrible for the next week or two. As the two servants charged each other, Enya readied herself to provide her own servant with support. Giving Lancer her mana for Gae Bolg was one thing, but Enya could support him without going into terrible prana rebound. She was a Mayer after all, and thus she was able to provide support while using very little of her own mana.

Just as the servants were about to strike, a red blur appeared between them. Lancer, being uninjured and quick, simply jumped back; the female servant, however, was blocked and thrown back by the red servant.

"Ah, so we meet again," Archer's master said to Enya and Lancer.


End file.
